1. World
War II

2. The Road to
War:

3. Joseph Stalin – Soviet Union
Takes over the USSR after Lenin’s death in 1924.
“Man of Steel”
Suspicious, cruel, ruthless and tyrannical
10 million deaths in Soviet Union are at his hands (mainly due to starvation)
“The Great Terror” he purges suspected traitors
Ruled through fear and propaganda

4. Benito Mussolini - Italy
Totalitarian “fascist” dictator
Rises to power due to frustration following WW1
Opposes communism
Black Shirts are used to enforce his control.
Known as “Il Duce” or the leader he outlaws political parties, took over the press he totally controls Italian society

5. Japanese Militarists
Great Depression lessens the power of a democratic government… and the military asserts its traditional power.
Japan is headed by a “constitutional monarch” but he is strongly influenced by the military leaders and seek to expand their empire in the East.
Hideki Tojo ( )
Emperor Hirohito

6. Adolf Hitler - Germany
Because of the worldwide Depression, and the weak Weimar Republic the Nazi (Fascist) party rises to power.
Opposing Socialism and a devastated economy he gains support.
Mein Kampf (My Struggle) is his book outlining his beliefs, among them is anti-Semitism.
He offers hope to a discouraged people and promises a bright future…
Rules with an iron fist

7. The Versailles Treaty

8. A Weak League of Nations

9. The Ineffectiveness of the League of Nations
No control of major conflicts.
No progress in disarmament.
No effective military force.

10. The “Stab-In-The-Back” Theory
The notion or myth that Germany only lost the Great War because of betrayal by civilians and “republicans” that had overthrown the Kaiser.
Those who signed the Armistice were labeled the “November criminals”
Those conspiring were “Jews, Marxists, and ‘cultural bolsheviks’”.

11. Decadence of the Weimar Republic

12. France – False Sense of Security?
The Maginot Line
A Stroke of Genius?

13. France – False Sense of Security?

14. International Agreements
Locarno Pact – 1925
France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy
Guarantee existing frontiers
Establish DMZ 30 miles deep on East bank of Rhine River
Refrain from aggression against each other
Kellogg-Briand Pact – 1928
Makes war illegal as a tool of diplomacy
No enforcement provisions

15. The Great Depression

16. The Manchurian Crisis, 1931

17. Japan Invades Manchuria, 1931

18. Italy Attacks Ethiopia, 1935 Emperor Haile Selassie
What was their goal?
Renewed Imperialism, a quest to recreate the great Roman Empire

19. Germany Invades (and rearms) the Rhineland March 7, 1936

20. U. S. Neutrality Acts: 1934, 1935, 1937, 1939

21. FDR’s Quarantine Speech October 1937
FDR calls for a “quarantine” of aggressor nations… essentially economic embargoes
Isolationists are outraged at FDR’s interventionist speech

22. America-First Committee
Charles Lindbergh

23. Rome-Berlin Axis, 1936
The “Pact of Steel”